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Matthew Pouliot

Strike Zone

July Starter Rankings

Welcome to the July starter rankings. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they will perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Along with the position rankings, you'll find a fully updated top 300 list.

I've been overly harsh in accounting for Fernandez's innings limit in the rankings each month, but it is time to really start thinking about that now. He's a top-50 pitcher at the moment, but he's likely to get September off. Cashner might be in the same boat unless the Padres can stay in the NL West race. As is, the Padres are already working out ways to get him extra rest. Wheeler and Gibson are among the other youngsters likely to finish the season as spectators.

Speaking of Gibson, he was pretty impressive in his major league debut Saturday against the Royals, throwing 93-94 mph with his fastball and recording five strikeouts in a victory. The Twins held him back so long in part because they're managing his innings in his first year back from Tommy John surgery, and since they're not going to make any noise this year, they may limit him to 10-12 more starts before shutting him down. Despite that, Gibson is still easily their top pitcher for fantasy purposes right now. He and Deduno are the only Twins pitchers to make the top 150 this month.

Wandy Rodriguez's latest forearm/elbow setback resulted in a 20-spot bump for Cole in the rankings. It's starting to seem quite a bit less likely that he'll see Triple-A again this year.

Cingrani is a top-50 starter until Cueto rejoins the Reds' rotation. Sounds like it'll be at least a month this time.

Despite being sent down last week, Straily is still nominally Oakland's fifth starter. He was sent down because three off days enabled the team to go to a four-man rotation for a couple of weeks.

If I were the Yankees (Hughes, Phelps), Braves (Maholm) or Rockies (Chatwood, Nicasio), I'd call the Royals and see if they'd trade Davis for a more reliable SP, with the idea of shifting Davis back to the pen. Davis looked like potential closer material in the Rays pen last year, but he's been a flop as a starter again this year and the Royals already have plenty of quality relief options.

Welcome to the July starter rankings. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they will perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Along with the position rankings, you'll find a fully updated top 300 list.

I've been overly harsh in accounting for Fernandez's innings limit in the rankings each month, but it is time to really start thinking about that now. He's a top-50 pitcher at the moment, but he's likely to get September off. Cashner might be in the same boat unless the Padres can stay in the NL West race. As is, the Padres are already working out ways to get him extra rest. Wheeler and Gibson are among the other youngsters likely to finish the season as spectators.

Speaking of Gibson, he was pretty impressive in his major league debut Saturday against the Royals, throwing 93-94 mph with his fastball and recording five strikeouts in a victory. The Twins held him back so long in part because they're managing his innings in his first year back from Tommy John surgery, and since they're not going to make any noise this year, they may limit him to 10-12 more starts before shutting him down. Despite that, Gibson is still easily their top pitcher for fantasy purposes right now. He and Deduno are the only Twins pitchers to make the top 150 this month.

Wandy Rodriguez's latest forearm/elbow setback resulted in a 20-spot bump for Cole in the rankings. It's starting to seem quite a bit less likely that he'll see Triple-A again this year.

Cingrani is a top-50 starter until Cueto rejoins the Reds' rotation. Sounds like it'll be at least a month this time.

Despite being sent down last week, Straily is still nominally Oakland's fifth starter. He was sent down because three off days enabled the team to go to a four-man rotation for a couple of weeks.

If I were the Yankees (Hughes, Phelps), Braves (Maholm) or Rockies (Chatwood, Nicasio), I'd call the Royals and see if they'd trade Davis for a more reliable SP, with the idea of shifting Davis back to the pen. Davis looked like potential closer material in the Rays pen last year, but he's been a flop as a starter again this year and the Royals already have plenty of quality relief options.